Feel-Good Story Of The Day -- May 1, 2024

Locator: 47124FEELGOOD.

The news story that probably bothered me the most in the past two weeks has been the Columbia University Hamas - Palestinian protest story. Psychologically it has really, really bothered me. 

The students -- not the outside agitators -- have been given, perhaps, the biggest gift they will ever receive in their lifetime: an education at a premier university, and for most of the students, it truly is a gift. Someone else is paying their tuition and living expenses, most often their parents. And, if they are taking out loans for their education, those loans will be "forgiven" in 2044.

And this is how they show their gratitude.

So this story, from CNN, made my day.  Hopefully, I'll see many more such stories.

Maryam Alwan figured the worst was over after New York City police in riot gear arrested her and other protesters on the Columbia University campus, loaded them onto buses and held them in custody for hours. But the next evening, the college junior received an email from the university. 

Alwan and other students were being suspended after their arrests at the “ Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” a tactic colleges across the country have deployed to calm growing campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

The students’ plight has become a central part of protests, with students and a growing number of faculty demanding their amnesty. At issue is whether universities and law enforcement will clear the charges and withhold other consequences, or whether the suspensions and legal records will follow students into their adult lives.

"The students' plight." LOL. We're supposed to feel "sorry" for them?

This is not like the Vietnam protests in the 60s. Then, the students truly had a dog in that fight. Upon graduation the men were losing their college draft deferment and would be headed to Vietnam. "Their plight" was obvious to them. Right, wrong, indifferent, the majority of college students protesting in the 60s had a real dog in that fight.

The protestors in New York this past week: unlikely that (m)any of them had a dog in that fight. Unless Hamas scholarships to American universities have been disrupted due to the current hostilities in Gaza.